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Feedback from the Vista Install Fest

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So many of you have provided a huge amount of feedback from the Vista Install Fest and I thank you for everything,so I thought I would share this piece from Jason Leclaire....

WINDOWS VISTA BETA 1 INSTALL FEST
As noted by Jason R. Leclair, MCP

First of all I wanted to thank all the Microsoft Canada employees that went out of their way, on a Saturday, in their spare time, and above all other very important duties (I'm sure they have), For HAVING THE WINDOWS VISTA BETA 1 INSTALL FEST!
(Held in Toronto, Canada @ Microsoft Canada)

More specifically, I would like to thank all the members of TechNet Canada, in particular Bruce Cowper.

Bruce had to be one of the most energetic individuals I have come across for sometime. He presented in a very fun, point specific, hands on approach. This was no slideshow. We all brought our machines (or three) to the event. We all got to spend a fair bit of time installing, troubleshooting, asking questions and meeting people. Most importantly we are over a year ahead of the release of this OS and we are tasked with helping develop improvements in the OS before it is distributed en masse. This is something I wish I could of seen in all OS development prior to now. If this isn't a huge improvement by Microsoft to help to prove to me that they actually do care what the IT "real" world have to say about their OS, I don't know what is.

As far as I know this was the only event of this kind, Microsoft sponsored (yes it was free too) not only in Canada, but the whole world.
On this day we did not only feel the support amongst Microsoft and the IT community, we had the opportunity to extend into the local community and were able to raise hundreds of dollars and fill a Nerds On Site VW Beetle with food to donate to local charities.
This appeared to be very much an idea of only Bruce Cowper. Thanks again Bruce. And please keep it up. I want to attend many other events like this, especially BETA 2 this Christmas.
I have never attended a MS TechNet event before, possibly due to the available dates, times, and limited seats. So I would like to mention this was also a great day and time.

Confident, Clear, Connected.
This is their new catch phrase these days, but this time I don't think it's just a catch phrase at all.

Here are Key Features Discussed/Tested (and a few that I just know of):
(In no particular order, also I cannot 100% verify any of this to be accurate completely, or that it will be in the future releases of the OS. I may have also left out some details, or features, feel free to comment, and/or discuss)

· MSN 8.0
· Internet Explorer 7.0
· Upgraded Backup program (many server like features for backup, built in)
· AeroGlass visual beauty
· TweakXP to enable some of the extra visual features (shift-minimize or maximize slow down is my fave)
· New audio framework
· Digital Rights Management (DRM), to allow protection of intellectual property.
· ClickOnce deployment engine
· Trusted Computing (Palladium) platform
· Windows Presentation Foundation or WPF, formerly code named Avalon: a new user interface.
· Windows Communication Foundation or WCF, formerly code named Indigo: a service-oriented messaging system to allow programs to interoperate locally or remotely similar to web services.
· WinFX (combination of .net, WPF and WCF)
· Aero Vista will include a completely re-designed user interface.
· Search engine that will allow for instant display of results for any given search of files, folders, virtual folders, network, mp3 players, etc. As well as the ability to save these searches for future use.
· Automatic Syncing of LAPTOPS, folders, files, VOLUMES, mp3 players, etc
· XML paper specification (XPS) next generation document format (like pdf)
· Much better task manager and event scheduler. You can schedule events now that ON EVENT completes a task. Meaning, email me if this program crashes etc)
· New Problem and Solutions help (no more crawling through knowledge base articles)
· Privacy control allows administrator to control games. When enabled a user can be allowed only to play certain specified games. How about no more Hearts or Solitaire? EVEN BETTER how about this:
· Gameplay can be restricted to games ESRB rated. You can allow a child to only access games for their age category, or you can select “T” for teens and they can play only that category and below. You can restrict/allow content based on all the ESRB ratings in any given country. This is very nice. And to add to this:
· UAP (user account protection) once enabled UAP creates virtual copies of all system files, and LOCKS DOWN EVERYTHING on the entire desktop. EVEN for the Administrator accounts. This means even if you are a member of the administrators group, you are still affected by UAP. You can’t even change the time. That is without a password you can’t. This definitely adds a new layer of security to all user accounts, even the administrator account.
· Network Presenter allows you to broadcast and receive live video streams of another networked computer. This is great for larger environments where you can present to many pc’s at once. (Built into a client machine)
· Installation privilege escalation
· Error Login improvements
· Explorer Shell: The new explorer is a huge change from all previous versions of Windows. Combined with the new desktop searching feature, the shell gives users the ability to find and organize their files in vast new ways. Apart from regular file organization practice of using folders to contain files, a new collection known as Lists let you organize files from multiple locations in a single place.
· There is a new search bar in every single window, which allows for very simple searching, or filtering of any file or folder. This is particularly useful for those who have large amounts of pictures, files, and music.
· The new Start Menu also includes this feature enabling one to begin typing application names and having them instantly filtered down. Start typing wo and Microsoft Word is displayed, then press enter, and you my friend are becoming more productive.
· A new type of folder known as a Shadow Folder has the ability to revert its entire contents to any arbitrary point in the past.
· Included is a brand new networking stack. A significant change is a more complete implementation of IPv6
· Built-in DVD recording
· Disk imaging technology called XImage
· Native Raw image support
· Embedded RSS support
· Far Superior File encryption support
· The "My" prefixes have been dropped
· (WinSat), a built in benchmarking tool

THE BIG ONE:
File virtualization, a feature that automatically creates private (secondary) files. Paired with user Account protection (UAP) the system then CREATES VIRTUAL COPIES OF ALL SYSTEM FILES. If you don’t get it, that means any changes the user (or malware) makes to the system in fact DISAPPEAR UPON REBOOT.

So there, now you can tell the user to reboot, and this time you are sure it will actually do something.

The last mentioned, and some of the other features and improvements included in the built- from-the-ground up new OS named Vista, Code Named Longhorn, really do offer:

Confident, Clear, Connected Computing to all end-users.

Jason R. Leclair, MCP

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